Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 11 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/233

 having to face only the trying scenes of a more exaggerated need, deprived of their ordinary and more than ever indispensable means of recreation and forgetfulness,—of work,—sit for whole days at a time with folded hands, discussing various rumors and propositions about help given and to be given, but especially about their poverty; "they grow gloomy and lose their spirits, and that is the reason more than anything else that they get sick," said a sensible old man to me.

Not to mention the economical significance of work for this year, its moral significance is enormous. Work, any kind of work which should employ the idle people this year, is a most pressing necessity.

Until we shall see organized the great industries for which there were various very sensible plans, now, it is rumored, being established, and destined to confer inestimable blessings, if only in the establishment of them the habits and convenience of the population are taken into consideration,—if only in all the famine-stricken districts the opportunity is given for all the remaining people to work at the work they are accustomed to, the men to pleat lapti and the women to spin and weave, and the opportunity is given to sell what they make by this labor,—then this would be, at least, a great help against the decline of the Russian husbandry, even if it did not entirely stop it.

If it be granted that a place can be obtained for cloth at eight kopeks the arshin—and this is possible when it is produced in large quantities—and that lapti which will last for years will be bought at ten kopeks a pair, then each man's earnings will be at the very least five kopeks, that is to say one ruble fifty kopeks a month. If in addition to this it is admitted that in every family on the average not more than one-fourth of the members are unable to work, then it seems that for every person in a family there will be earned one-fourth of 4.50 kopeks, in other words 1.12 kopek; that is to say, considerably more than what now comes from the zemstvo with such strain, bickerings, and quarrels, and producing such general discontent.